[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 82 (Thursday, June 5, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1163-E1164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HEALTH DISPARITIES AMONG MINORITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 4, 2003

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to discuss the state 
of Health Care in America. Mr. Speaker, we have a health care crisis in 
America and in particular, we have a crisis in the African-American 
community with regard to disparities in treatment and access to care.
  Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus has made Universal Health 
Care the centerpiece of our agenda. The Congressional Black Caucus 
believes that everyone in America should have some basic level of 
health care coverage.
  Mr. Speaker, today, as in the past, being Black in America is a 
medically dangerous condition. Being Black and poor can be deadly. That 
is a national tragedy that the Congressional Black Caucus is determined 
to end.
  In 1998, President Clinton committed this Nation to eliminating 
racially based health disparities by the year 2010. As a result of this 
initiative, in the report entitled ``Unequal Treatment: Confronting 
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care'' issued March 2002, the 
IOM research team concludes that: Americans of color tend to receive 
lower-quality health care than do Caucasians and that African-Americans 
receive inferior medical care--compared to the majority population--
even when the patients' incomes and insurance plans are the same. These 
disparities contribute to higher death rates from heart disease, 
cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-endangering conditions.
  The Report found that African-American Medicare patients were almost 
4 times less likely than their Caucasian counterparts to receive needed 
coronary bypass surgery.
  Black seniors were nearly 2 times less likely to receive treatment 
for prostate cancer.
  Older Black Americans were 3.6 times more likely to have lower limbs 
amputated as a result of diabetes.
  Mr. Speaker, access to health care is becoming a critical issue for 
Black and Hispanic-Americans.
  Overall, more than 40 percent of nonelderly African-Americans (12.5 
million) and more than 50 percent of nonelderly Hispanic-Americans 
(18.5 million) had no health insurance in 2001-2002.
  Minority children face obstacles in getting the health care they 
need. In 2001, there were 9.2 million uninsured children, the majority 
of them were minorities: 36 percent were Hispanic and 18 percent were 
Black.
  Four-and-a-half million Black children now receive their health 
coverage through Medicaid or SCHIP (the Federal health program for 
children), and 4.7 million Hispanic children get healthcare through 
Medicaid or SCHIP.
  That is why Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-
income Americans, is critical to minorities.
  The most recent data show that 9.8 million Blacks and 6.4 million 
Hispanics need Medicaid to get access to health care.
  Mr. Speaker, despite these disparities the Bush budget continues to 
shortchange healthcare. To pay for the tax cuts for the wealthiest 5 
percent, the Republican leadership under-funds numerous health programs 
including the Ryan White program, eliminates the Community Access 
Program, cuts the Veterans Health programs and the SCHIP program.

  Despite these disparities the Republicans cut funding for Medicaid 
coverage for children, low-income seniors, people in nursing homes, and 
the disabled. And the Bush administration wants to block grant 
Medicaid--cut the funding by $3.2 billion over 10 years and give the

[[Page E1164]]

money to the States to let the States spend it on other competing 
priorities.
  This will basically dismantle Medicaid's guarantee of access to 
healthcare for low-income individuals.
  Mr. Speaker, this sort of policymaking does not make sense in the 
``land of plenty.'' I can only quote my good friend Jocelyn Elders who 
stated, ``We, in our society believe that every criminal has a right to 
a lawyer. But yet we are one of only two countries, the United States 
and South Africa, who does not believe that every sick person should 
have a right to a doctor.''
  Mr. Speaker, every American is entitled to access to quality 
healthcare. That's why I cosponsored Congressman John Conyers' bill to 
provide health insurance to every resident of the United States.
  Our bill, the United States National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676, 
would provide all individuals residing within the United States with 
insurance covering primary care, and preventative health services, 
prescription drug coverage, emergency care, and mental health services.
  In essence, it would expand Medicare to cover all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I realize that this is going to be a long hard fight. 
But I am convinced that the time for a ``single-payer'' system has 
come.
  If we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars in an effort to 
protect the American people from foreign attack, we can raise and spend 
the money that it will take to protect the American people from dying 
before their time from accident or disease on our soil. If we can give 
universal health coverage to those on foreign soil, we can also do it 
for our own citizens.
  It's time to make health care a civil right for all Americans, my 
friends. That is the hard lesson that Americans of color learned from 
our experience with this Nation's health care system.
  And that is the same hard lesson that many, many other Americans are 
learning today. We speak truth to power, when we declare that 
discrimination and racial disparities continue to plague our system of 
health care.
  Increasing the number of qualified minority physicians and other 
health care professionals--and assuring that they are adequately 
compensated for their work--are core prerequisites to transforming that 
equation.
  That is the truth--but it is not the whole truth. It also is true 
that: Most poor children in America are not Black; Most sick children 
in America are not Black; And most Americans who cannot afford health 
insurance are not Black.
  Mr. Speaker, these American children are our children, whatever may 
be the color of their skin. We must never allow the virus of racial 
division to infect our vision of what it means to be human beings.
  Lastly Mr. Speaker, I implore my Republican colleagues to correct the 
injustice in the recently passed tax bill that denies millions of poor 
families, those making between $10,000 and $26,000 the Child Tax credit 
of $400 they so desperately need.
  We should not shift the tax burdens from the wealthy to the working 
poor. These families need our help--we should give it to them. Restore 
fairness to the tax bill--tax cuts to the wealthy should not out 
millions of families.
  Lastly, I thank my friend Danny Davis for leading this floor effort.

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